If it felt like Visa’s landmark $5.3 billion acquisition of San Francisco-based fintech startup Plaid last week came completely out of the blue, you’re sorely mistaken.
The acquisition, which instantly doubled Plaid’s private valuation, has reportedly been in the works for more than a year, Quartz just pointed out in its overview of the head-turning deal.
Visa’s move comes as financial behemoths work to stay on-trend on account of consumers’ growing preference for apps like Venmo, Betterment and Robinhood over old-fashioned plastic. Fast-growing upstarts like Plaid serve as the invisible “plumbing” connecting the Venmos of the world to users’ bank accounts, so deals like these protect giants like Visa from potentially losing customers, market share and relevancy in an increasingly crowded space.
If you’re still not convinced why Visa felt the need to bet big on Plaid, The Motley Fool also laid out three compelling reasons why the decision was a “no brainer.”
Harshing the buzz: What looked not that long ago like a bright future for cannabis startups suddenly seems a lot hazier thanks to the apparent struggles of Eaze, the self-proclaimed “Uber of Pot.”
The marijuana delivery app reportedly just closed a $15 million bridge round to “keep the lights on” as it’s been blazing through its $166 million in funding. At the same time, it’s attempting to pivot away from distributing third-party dispensaries’ products and toward developing and selling its own. It just ain’t that easy being green, folks. [TechCrunch]
Prepare for takeoff: Turo, also known as “Airbnb for your car,” just won a permit to operate in its first U.S. airport: SFO. The company was founded as RelayRides in Boston in 2010 but expanded in San Francisco in 2010 and is now headquartered there. [Silicon Valley Business Journal]
Putting the AI in “lawyer:” The law field isn’t known for being particularly tech-forward, but Casetext creator Jake Heller is working to change that. In 2013, Heller, who himself is a lawyer, launched CARA, an AI tool aimed at helping litigators prepare their cases more efficiently so they can help more clients. The tool is being used by almost 5,000 small law firms nationwide in addition to inmates in prisons who are working to appeal their cases. The tool’s next evolution? Recommending legal arguments. [Built In]
Isn’t it obvious? Obvious Ventures’ co-founder James Joaquin just announced the closing of the firm’s third fund, OV3, in a new Medium post and it’s certainly no chump change: about $272 million to back startups in three areas -- healthy living, sustainable systems and “people power.”
Hey big funding: Speaking of large amounts of money, 2020 is already proving to be a busy time for funding news on the San Francisco tech scene.
Zinier, a startup harnessing AI in an attempt to automate field service management, just closed on a $90 million Series C. Modern Health, a healthtech company developing a comprehensive digital mental health platform, has raised $31 million in Series B funding. Epsagon, a cloud microservices monitoring startup, just announced $16 million in Series A funding led by U.S. Venture Partners. And Leap’s raised $8.2 million Series A to expand its distributed energy exchange.
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